


Moonshadow Prince

by Flammenkobold



Category: The Magnus Archives (Podcast)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Death Threats, Detective Noir, M/M, Multi, Nightmares, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Private Investigators, Reincarnation, Science Fiction, Slow Build, Unhealthy Relationships
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-10-02
Updated: 2018-10-02
Packaged: 2019-07-24 00:11:38
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,188
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16169612
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Flammenkobold/pseuds/Flammenkobold
Summary: Martin Blackwood, a private investigator, and his plucky assistant Jon are hired to find out who is sending death threats to the Moonshadow Prince, the most expensive courtesan this side of the Kuiper belt. Aided by dreams of a past life they must win a race against time and whatever lurks in the shadows - before Tim dies, again.Mystery, intrigue, Tim in a corset and a dash of romance - on the Moon!





	Moonshadow Prince

**Author's Note:**

> Written for the Piles of Nonsense Big Bang. Updates are going to be a bit irregular.

Melanie leaned over the bar and gave the room a cursory glance, even though it was still pretty empty this early in the evening.

“So,” she said, conspiratorially, “the Moonshadow Prince?”

Martin nearly choked on the sip of fresh water he'd just taken. “How- How do you know?” He stared at her. A smile spread over her face and he sighed. “Georgie.”

“Georgie,” she agreed.

“You shouldn't know. She shouldn't even know,” he said crossly and stared into his glass.

“Get a better assistant then,” she said and Martin slowly took another sip of water.

“He’s a good assistant,” he said stubbornly, and Jon was, he really was.

“Sure,” Melanie muttered. “And a pain in the ass.” Martin took a deep breath to come to Jon’s defense but Melanie wouldn’t have it. “So, the Moonshadow Prince, spill.”

“You don’t need to know everything, you know?”

“Water’s on the house if you share,” she offered.

Martin eyed his glass thoughtfully. Unprocessed water directly from Earth was a rarity and as expensive as most of the better Crisium moonshine. It was a tempting offer, but he also had to respect his client’s integrity. And if this job paid out he could buy more water than he’d seen in his entire life. Maybe even enough to take a real shower with it, the kind his mother used to talk about having on Earth, not just the sonic ones. Maybe he could even afford a vacation and visit the city in England she had come from.

“Melanie,” he said warningly and she laughed.

“Come on, at least a little bit.”

“I- you know what, no, no, no.” He took another sip from the water and did not look at her.

“Fine,” she said and he glanced up after all.

“Really?”

She just shrugged. “I’ll find out eventually, you know?”

“Yeah, see, that’s what I’m afraid of.”

“Oh come now, I’m not that bad.”

He smiled into the glass. “You’re the best,” he said and she hit him lightly on the arm.

“Uh-huh, stop it. It won’t get you any discounts.” She wiped down the bar, getting rid of the fine dust that had already gathered again in the time since Martin had come in. “This is sisyphean work,” she grumbled and threw the dish rag into the small basin behind the bar.

She then leaned over to Martin again. “So can you at least tell me how he looks like?”

Martin shrugged. “I haven’t met him yet?”

“Pity,” she said leaning back and looking slightly disappointed. “I’d really like to know if he is really as pretty as everyone says.”

“I can tell you after tonight,” he said and immediately slapped his hands over his mouth.

“Got you.”

“Damn you.” His voice was muffled and Melanie laughed.

"Did you know that there's a rumour going around that he used to be a regular here before I bought what was left of it? Back when this was Galia's."

"Really?"

"I swear, it's what she said."

"But why would someone from the Dome come here of all places?" Galia's had been a famous club in the Mare Imbrium, before the interior was destroyed by fire and old Galia had retired. It was said to have been one of the most fun places to be on the Moon - if you were moon-born. Not that Martin could judge, he'd never made it there before Melanie owned the place, too busy and never dressed well enough or pretty enough to get into any club that was of some repute.

Melanie lowered her voice even more. "She said he wasn't from the Dome back then, just another miner's brat."

"Seriously?"

Melanie shrugged. "Just passing on the gossip." She reached down below the bar and got out a mildly dusty bottle of Moonshine, one of the better ones, Martin suspected, and poured both of them a shot. She nudged one glass over to him. “One on the house for good luck.” He blinked at her but reached out with one hand anyway, only to have the glass snatched away before he could lift it up. “But only,” Melanie added, “if you tell me in detail how pretty he is.”

“I really shouldn’t,” he said.

“Oh come on, Martin, for me?”

He sighed. It wouldn’t hurt, would it? Telling Melanie if the Moonshadow Prince was really as pretty as everyone claimed him to be. It didn’t infringe on the contract he had signed, when the lady working for Elias Bouchard had come over to offer him the job. Elias Bouchard, owner of the Strix and manager of person who people claimed to be the most beautiful and expensive thing to be found on the Moon.

The expensive part Martin wasn’t quite sold on. Expensive as a meeting with the Moonshadow Prince might be, there were still the titan and moonstone mines to consider, in Martin’s opinion. The mines were essential for building space crafts set for Mars and the Jupiter moons and generated a lot of valuable income and material for the lunar citizens. And those were tangible things. Meanwhile the Moonshadow Prince, for all his fame and the praise bestowed upon him, was mostly just a story to the ordinary people living in the shadow of the Dome.

The most beautiful part Martin hardly doubted, everything here was dusty and came with a greyish hue, the Dome and the view of Earth aside. It would be hard to be certain without meeting him first or seeing a picture of him, the former now more likely than Martin could’ve ever hoped for, while getting a picture was as easy as diving into the Jupiter mines unprotected. Not at all.

In an age where everything was recorded and filmed and immortalized in photos, it was rare to not find any visual material on someone. But the owner of the Strix had a firm hand over any material that left the Strix or the Dome. Anyone who so much as tried to leak a picture of the most beautiful thing on the Moon was as good as dead - or worse. Even with all the preparations and research Martin and Jon had done in the past few days ever since the contract came in, there had been nothing tangible. There had been some supposed leaks, but to Martin they had all looked wrong and each leaked picture always held the image of a different person.

“Fine,” he muttered and she put down the shot in front of him.

“Cheers,” she said, “and who knows, maybe he is as beautiful as the guy in your dreams.”

Martin shook his head, not wanting to think about that now. Especially since the nightmares he had since childhood had become worse again. Sometimes they had people in it he knew, even before he knew them, like Melanie and Jon. But the man he saw lying dead on a gleaming steel table in so many of them - so pretty even in death - he hadn’t met yet. He downed the shot and then, because it tasted plenty awful, downed the rest of his water, trying unsuccessfully not to cough.

 

 


End file.
